Public construction projects take place in dynamic multi-actor environments in which uncertainty, changing conditions, and interdependencies can put project objectives under pressure. Although risk registers are widely used to document and manage risks, they are not always written consistently, and links between causes and response measures are often not made explicit. This limits their comparability, learning potential, and practical usefulness.

This thesis examines how risk causes are related to response measures in Dutch public construction projects, using pre-construction risk registers as the empirical dataset. The study combines a focused literature review, thematic analysis of the risk registers, and an expert meeting with three project control managers.

The findings show that the literature provides a useful starting point for structuring recurring risk causes, but that additional refinement is needed to reflect practice. The thematic analysis resulted in practice-based categorizations for risk causes, risk events, and response measures, and showed that causes and measures are related through recurring links. Rather than pointing to fixed response rules, these recurring links suggest three broader cause–measure pattern types, namely focused cause–measure patterns, dispersed cause–measure patterns, and broad linking patterns.

Overall, the thesis shows that broad recurring cause–measure patterns can be identified in risk registers through structured analysis, and that clearer categorization and recording practices can strengthen the value of the risk registers for comparison, learning, and improvement in public construction projects.
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The Dutch government aims for a fully circular built environment by 2050, transitioning from a linear to a circular economy. This involves establishing construction hubs, divided into circular hubs (focusing on closed-loop material chains) and non-circular hubs (focusing on efficient transportation). Currently, only a small fraction of construction and demolition waste is reused, making the role of circular construction hubs crucial.

This study investigates how to stimulate the realisation of urban mining hubs in the Netherlands. The primary research question is: How can the realisation of urban mining hubs in the Netherlands be stimulated? Data was collected through a literature review and semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders in the construction sector.

Findings highlight the undefined role of hubs within the urban mining process and the advantages they offer, including resource conservation, financial savings, and employment opportunities within a circular economy. Barriers include insufficient material supply and demand, inventory uncertainties, and inadequate legislation. An actionable framework was developed, consisting of three phases: initiation, optimisation, and expansion, with a focus on innovation, education, and collaboration among stakeholders. ... Read more

There is no argument against the need to achieve other value types in infrastructure projects to meet the actors' expectations and broader organizational goals. The value engineering approach, later adjusted under the term 'value management,' achieves desired functions at the lowest cost through a set of workshop activities. Integrating value engineering with benefits management could expand what value means and identify additional value. However, benefits management has limited applicability to infrastructure projects due to inconsistent definitions and perceptions regarding value creation as well as its literature lacks an understanding of the appropriate governance mechanisms. Consequently, this study aims to explore how integrating value engineering with benefits management can help practitioners consider value more holistically in infrastructure projects by answering four sub-questions that aim to explore value engineering and benefits management, conceptualize governance mechanisms, assess how value engineering is currently conducted in built environment projects, and identify steps practitioners can take to expand the integration of these methods.

The cases' workshop activities were structured into seven phases: preparation, information, function analysis, creative, evaluation, development, and presentation. The governance mechanisms used included coordination, building-capability, goal-setting, monitoring, and roles & decision-making. Based on both theoretical and empirical results, the developed project governance process involves several workshop activities and governance mechanisms, where value is defined in terms of impact and then working backwards through a multi-phase process. The process is divided into the following phases: usefulness & necessity phase, preparation phase, information phase, outcome and impact analysis phase, creative phase, evaluation phase, development phase, and presentation and reporting phases. A visual representation of this process can be seen in Figure 4.1 in the original document. Once developed, a workshop confirmed its feasibility for implementation because all phases were clearly explained. Experts' recommendations included linking these phases with work packages, conducting risk analysis before the "creative phase," and making it more visually appealing through a flowchart full of icons or colors to help technical actors better understand it and thus make it more practical.

Integrating the benefits management and value engineering approaches can be achieved by incorporating them into the already-established value engineering multi-phase process. This requires considering all scales along which value evolves, starting from impact, and evaluating them once identified. By doing so, actors are equipped to take more parameters into account, mitigating the uncertainty between expected and realized value. Additionally, governance mechanisms play a crucial role in aligning all actors' expectations towards achieving high-value goals by bringing them together towards a shared goal. ... Read more

Interface management (IM) is an emerging construction management practice that is mainly concerned with the integration effort of (mega)projects through the management of project interfaces. Even though a plethora of benefits is attributed to IM, a clear overview of how to effectively manage interfaces is non-existent. Without a general understanding on what IM entails, false expectations about its use are created. At the same time, IM developments from academic research are facing obstacles in their adoption in practice, for practitioners are often not represented in these developments.

The absence of situated knowledge (i.e. knowledge found and created in practice) in IM development is problematic, for a profession, or professionalism in general, builds on a body of knowledge comprised of integrated knowledge from theory and practice. For this reason, this research has attempted to take a step in the professionalisation of IM by converging the knowledge from theory and practice. That is, enriching the professional content by creating uniformity on the concept of IM and its key principles. The following research question underpinned this effort: What step can be taken in the professionalisation of IM, based on the perspectives from theory and practice?

For this, the theoretical perspectives on IM and its professionalisation were studied first, by means of a literature review. Then, practitioner perspectives were studied on the same topics through semi-structured interviews with twelve practitioners involved in the different domains of integral project management. These practitioners were all employed by a large Dutch engineering and consultancy firm. The gathered data was then subject to thematic analysis.

A comparison of the findings revealed a similar dichotomy in IM in both theory and practice: a distinction between the technical and organisational aspect. As the results showed possibilities for professionalisation from both sides, it was argued that professionalisation should ultimately happen on both fronts.

To create a basis for professionalism, an appropriate means to integrate the theoretical and situated knowledge needed to be found. To this end, literature on the professionalisation of related construction management disciplines was consulted. Inspired by the professionalisation of risk management, a set of key principles was deemed an appropriate medium to integrate the theoretical and situated knowledge of IM. Hence, a rough guide to IM has been created containing key principles. These principles have been validated by two IM experts in separate validation interviews.

Concluding, the development of a set of key principles of IM is the answer to the research question, which in itself provides a step towards professionalisation. Uniformity on the topic has now been created by the convergence of knowledge from theory and practice. The principles thereby lay a foundation for (professionalism in) conducting IM, while leaving room for customisation at the same time. Practitioners from the different roles of integrated project management are recommended to use the principles at the start of (infrastructure) construction projects to create an understanding of interfaces and IM in general. It is believed that in this way the established uniformity on paper can be translated to practice. ... Read more

During construction projects, multiple stakeholders collaborate in reaching project success. To determine success - a subjective perception of the 'current' state-of-affair - stakeholders align their interpretations of what is valuable during assessment processes. A framework was developed which helps in making values explicit during these assessment processes and helps to facilitate meaningful conversations about values. ... Read more

This research discussed circularity and gave a proper definition for this for the Dutch water boards. This research developed an implementation tool that can be used by the water boards. It shows which design criteria exist within the core measurement method of cb23. These design criteria consist of 7 indicators. It is advised to use these indicators as circular ambitions for the water boards. These indicators can be measured over time, in which the water boards can effectively steer and measure these ambitions. This research showed 42 circular strategies, which have been connected to the ambitions of the CMM through an implementation tool. Strategies are connected to one of the 9 life cycle stages of an asset. These strategies, however, can conflict which each other. For example, solar panels might generate green energy, but if the alloys used can not be recovered, this results in a valuable loss of scarce materials. Moreover, some strategies are dependent on other strategies or can create synergy. An overview of these interactions is provided. ... Read more

Previous research assessing public organisations in the delivery of infrastructure projects mainly focuses on public project delivery organisations and their interaction with private parties. However, many challenges experienced by these project delivery organisations relate to the interaction with the public parent organisation. In practice, this interface mainly materialises as the interaction between the internal commissioner (Dutch: ambtelijk intern opdrachtgever) and the project manager. Internal commissioners are appointed to control whether project organisations adhere to the project assignment. Due to dynamic complexity emerging in infrastructure projects, causing deviations from the defined project assignment, more commitment of these commissioners to projects is needed by these public managers during project realisation. By qualitative research in diverse Dutch public sector organisations, more insight into the internal commissioning role during project realisation is created. The research suggests several ways of improving the efficiency of internal working procedures in public parent organisations. Furthermore, the research identified management recommendations for improving professionalism in the internal commissioning role during project realisation.
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This research aims to identify gain-and-pain-sharing methods to foster a collaborative environment to create win-win situations and create mutual objectives. To do so, gain-and-pain-sharing methods that can positively influence a collaborative environment are explored. This study is restricted to the Dutch construction sector because it is for Dutch implementation. Second, the research scope includes projects with high complexity because otherwise, gain-and-pain-sharing do not have effects, and most problems arise due to complexity. Lastly, the research focuses on the client side, since the client chooses the type of contract and criteria. The objective of the research is to provide clients with insight into the gain-and-pain-sharing possibilities and practical implementation steps to implement a gain-and-pain-sharing mechanism to incentivise collaboration. In the literature, different definitions of gain-and-pain sharing were identified and combined into the following definition: ‘Gain-and-pain sharing is defined as an agreement that allows the parties in a construction project to share profits or cost savings and to share losses due to errors or cost increases. Mutual benefits are achieved through gain sharing. Benefits could, for example, also be a reward for one’s delivered work, a bonus or recognition, and losses are the risks’. Based on this definition, the following gain-and-pain-sharing concepts were identified: -Bonus-malus; -Sharing of new created benefits; -Risk pot; -Target cost. The different concepts have different effects and different reasons for use as gain-and-pain sharing mechanisms. The way to deploy the mechanism depends on the choice based on the vision and strategy that the client has for the project. These two elements in turn depend on the company and project objectives, project specifications, experience with collaboration concepts, risk aversion, market conditions and one of the most important conditions, the scope certainty. It can be concluded that the gain-and-pain-sharing mechanism is deployed by different concepts for different purposes to incentivise collaboration and create mutual objectives. This coordination for the implementation of the mechanism is custom-made for each project based on a number of steps. The step-by-step plan that supports the implementation of the gain-and-pain-sharing mechanism. The case studies demonstrated that such a mechanism has been successful in those cases and is an added value for collaboration and the realisation of common goals. ... Read more

Public bodies acting in the construction industry have to deal with major transitional issues, such as globalization and urbanization, population ageing, climate change and digitalization. Moreover, the public domain, private parties and society are becoming increasingly interdependent. As a result, safeguarding public values in the built environment has become ever more complex. Public bodies face the challenge to adhere to collective public values while confronted with private and societal values of external partners. This means that they have to deal with value pluralism and value-conflicts. In research, scarce attention has been paid to providing guidance to practitioners for dealing with multi-value trade-offs in operational processes. Hence, this research provides a construction-sector specific operationalization and a network perspective to the field of public value research. This research highlights the important role to be played by public commissioning in terms of safeguarding public values. It consists of three qualitative studies that utilize a range of different methods, including interviews, observations and document analysis. By this the research provides a contemporary perspective through which to study and execute the safeguarding of public values by public clients in the transition towards network governance in the construction industry. The dynamics of the sector-specific value interests of public construction clients, the occurrence of value conflicts in commissioning, and the safeguarding processes within both internal and external commissioning are studied. The practical implications derived from the research were translated into a value dialogue tool that can be used by public construction clients to professionalize safeguarding in their daily practice. ... Read more

Currently the world is dealing with a pandemic. The world has stopped, and people are distancing from each other. However, this large crisis is not the only crisis the world is currently dealing with. Climate change is affecting the world drastically since the last century. Our current way of development must stop to deal with this change. This is the ideal time to stop and think about the future. How can we provide a future-proof city that is still attractive to our grandchildren?
Regardless of the crisis, more people want to live in cities, and therefore more features are needed within the same space. Cities must continuously adapt to new needs and demands. This fast-changing environment makes it even harder to continue our current development, while adapting to the needs and demands. A future-proof city starts with a sustainable development of new plans. It is time to improve the involvement of sustainability in area development. This study will look at this overdue change in area development. It acknowledges this problem and aims to advice how sustainability can be better embedded in spatial planning.
To support this optimization, the instruments of a municipality are researched in this master thesis. Next to the instruments, also, governance and the organizational aspects are included. This research has found that these three aspects of instruments, governance and organization combined should be optimized. An optimization of these three aspects can ensure that an area is developed sustainable.
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Historical developments and innovations in the field of civil engineering contributed to the state-of-the- art structures that shape our transportation infrastructure network nowadays. By way of contrast, solving the mobility issues of the past, created a challenge in terms of conservation today as many assets are reaching the end of their technical, economical and functional lifetime [Hertogh et al., 2018]. Main challenge arises for public authorities which have to meet safety demands and satisfy user expectations in the context of aging assets, imperfect knowledge on their conditions, limited resources, increasing traffic volumes and threats from climate change. Determining when, what and how has to happen is therefore more complex than simply renewing or replacing assets [Polder et al., 2012; van der Vlist et al., 2015; Nicolai et al., 2016].Together with the evident challenges, the magnitude of the predicted increase of Maintenance, Renewal and Replacement (read: MR&R) projects creates a variety of opportunities. One of the opportunities, is to widen the perspective beyond the boundaries of a single asset. Creation of a holistic view and recognition of portfolio opportunities is considered to be key in realizing strategic and tactical objectives, improved alignment with other projects and realize savings due to a decreased need of resources and selection and procurement procedures [Ferns, 1991; Heising, 2012; Chen et al., 2013]. Realizing the potential while controlling the present challenges is however easier said than done. Public organizations within the Netherlands are currently facing serious difficulties in the implementation of their MR&R projects in a fit-for-purpose manner. Fit-for-purpose, in this sense, refers to choosing the best solution for a problem, given the others alternatives [Koops et al., 2017]. In order to investigate both the complexities and the possibilities of MR&R challenges, the main questions of this research is:”How can decision-making on the MR&R interventions of the emerging set of soon-to-be outdated assets be supported to configure assets in a fit-for-purpose manner?”Since the preferred solution regarding the development of a project is picked during the front-end development (read: FED) of a project, the research is focused on these preparatory phases. During the FED, the problems are assessed, a preferred alternative given the present requirements is selected and further defined before it continues to the consecutive project phases [Weijde, 2008]. To provide support on the related decision-making process, the research is guided by two main deliverables:1. Provide an overview of the main complexities of MR&R challenges which influence the FED process2. Develop a framework to support public organization in organizing their FED process to deal with their emerging amount of aging assets in a fit-for-purpose mannerThe overview of the main complexities public organization face during the FED of their to MR&R challenge was created by a combination of scientific and empirical research. Given the present body of knowledge on MR&R challenges, FED and decision-making complexities, a conceptual framework was created. This functioned as a pair of glasses through which multiple cases were analyzed. By investigating four MR&R cases of Rijkswaterstaat, the Municipality of Amsterdam and the Province of North-Holland individually and jointly, a set of 20 challenges emerged. Altogether, these challenges influenced the opportunity of public organizations in the creation of fit-for-purpose project, portfolio or program configurations during the FED procedure.To create a framework which indicates how to deal with these challenges, seven decision-making dilemmas were identified. These dilemmas indicate the opportunities executive authorities within public organizations have in aligning their FED process to their perceived complexities, requirements and resources. The red cluster marks the dilemmas which influence the physical solution space of MR&R challenges, whereas the dilemmas in the orange cluster determine the design of the FED procedure. Since the opportunity to review and revise made decisions applies on both contextual and procedural dilemmas, the agility dilemmas is present in both clusters.In the end, public organizations in charge simply have two choices: simplification or complexification of the FED process. To deal with the emerging set of soon-to-be outdated assets, the process may be kept simple and foreseeable, but the opportunity to create asset transcending benefits is small. On the other side, an organization may decide to deliberately complicate the configuration process by increasing the amount of elements and related considerations. Given the developed decision-making framework, there are seven options to realize potential integrated benefits. during the FED procedure. With every dilemma, decisions to either simplify or complicate the FED process may be made, which create the opportunity for a public authority to adjust the configuration process to the present requirements, complexities and resources. Observance of the cases and the afterwards validation of the framework however pinpointed the risks of increasing the complexity of the FED process. For example, creation of a separate program and related procedures to deal with the MR&R challenge may result in a reluctant attitude of the involved staff and create an unforeseen amount of interrelations with other divisions in the organizations. Ifthe amount of components and actors involved in the decision-making process increases, also a greater span of control is demanded [Leijten, 2017]. Manageability issues due to the increase levels of complexity may therefore hamper the overall FED process. Therefore, using the developed framework should help decision-makers in public organizations in finding a balance between the potential to create certain benefits and the risk of making the process too complex.In order to improve the validity of the developed decision-making framework, it was first tested in an existing case of Rijkswaterstaat by conducting an imitation experiment. Based on the conditions of the case, decisions on the dilemmas in the framework were made and translated into a FED process. Next to the imitation experiment, an expert review on the framework was conducted. In the presence of representatives of the Municipality of Amsterdam and Rijkswaterstaat, the framework was tested on its completeness, functioning and usability. In the end, both validation incentives confirmed the added value of the decision-making framework as it provides the opportunity for public organizations to align their MR&R challenge and objectives with a FED process design. ... Read more

The building industry is stained as unsustainable due to the linear economy model of “take, make and dispose”. There is a need to switch to Circular Economy (CE). One of the ways in which the public clients can stimulate this transition is by implementing the Design for Disassembly (DfD) principle in the public procurement process. However, this stimulation is underexploited, and public clients seem to lack in having an effective system for implementation. Therefore, the objective of this research was to conceptualize a system for the implementation of the DfD principle in the public procurement process to achieve circular ambitions. A mixed research approach was adopted where first a literature study was conducted on the general procurement process of buildings and the aspects of DfD to conceptualize the DfD based procurement process. Following this, two case studies were conducted to understand how public clients have implemented DfD in the public procurement process of known circular buildings. Based on the results of the case study, the conceptualization of the DfD based procurement process was refined. The main findings from refined conceptualization are: firstly, the client needs to hire a design team specialized in DfD. This design team needs to formulate an ambition primarily for flexibility in design and beyond that for future reuse. Secondly, for the tendering phase, the client needs to set eligibility requirements for the selection of the design team asking for training and experience. They also need to set requirements for the inclusion of deconstruction professionals in the consortium. Finally, the client needs to award the contract based on the design principles of DfD. The client needs to assess the offers for these design principles using BIM-based tools. Also, for the assessment of the cost of the offers, the client needs to use life cycle costs. In conclusion, the implementation of DfD does not lead to a fundamental change in how the procurement process is conducted. Only in certain phases, the activities need to be conducted in line with DfD. ... Read more

When it comes down to building or maintaining civil infrastructure commissioned by a governmental body, a lot has changed during the last couple of years. The government made a turn from all determining body, to a cooperative partner and later even to an organization that’s outsourcing most of the construction and maintenance work to second and third parties. Changing the working methodology requires a change in the contracting strategy. Nowadays, the contract of choice for maintenance used by governmental and semi-governmental organizations is the performance-based maintenance contract (PBMC). There are many risks and important factors that influence the outcome of the use of PBMC in a negative way. Organizations that use them seem to overlook those negative influences and just focus on the potential cost savings. This results to a contract that hasn’t really been updated since it was first introduced. This leaves a situation where the effectiveness of the contract form is less than optimal; the contract does not deliver its full potential and the writers of the contract have no standardized way to approach the PBMC. The goal of thesis is to therefore find a structured way that can assist the contract design teams in making informed decision when drafting a PBMC. In order to find that structured way, the ingredients that would make up the structure had to be found. To achieve that, a literature study was performed in which all the criteria that would influence the outcome of a PBMC where gathered and categorized into five main decision criteria: predictability, plannability, measurability, responsibility and criticality. Next up, the parameters of the PBMC had to be found. These parameters would enable the user of the method to change the way an object would be outsourced based on the five main decision criteria. The parameters that where found are: size/scope, contribution of the contractor and the performance requirements. In order to provide the user with sensible information about a certain object to base their decisions on about the way of outsourcing, a trustworthy and function information gathering tool/method was needed. Within the area of reliability centered maintenance (RCM), the failure mode, effects and criticality analysis (FMECA) method was found to be very useful to gather the required information to base these decisions on. Another method that was found to be useful was the risk allocation matrix by Brommet. This method was created to give the user insight in possible outsourcing and payment solutions for DBFM contracts, but a redesign of the original matrix proved just as useful in making suggestions about outsourcing and payment methods for PBMC. All this information led to the creation of the decision-support method. This method, which contains 7 steps, was created to help contract design teams in making their initial decision about the way a certain object should be outsourced. The first step is designed to find the necessary information and prepare the risk allocation matrix to make it usable for this specific case. Steps 2 to 7 are designed to give a step by step answer on how to interpret each parameter and to reach a decision on how to outsource a certain part of an object. These steps are repeated for every single part of the object until a suggested outsourcing decision is made for every single part. The decision-support method is tested twice on a real case. During these case studies improvements were made to the initial model. Eventually the method is presented during an expert meeting within Rijkswaterstaat and another set of improvements was implemented. It can be concluded that the method can be successful in helping the contract design team is making a PBMC. Both by using the entire method of utilizing parts of it during the contract design process. The method helps the user to think of more options and assists in weighing these different options against each other. Although, the methods needs further testing and can definitely be improved. The potential of a method like this was definitely recognized during the expert meeting. The last part of the thesis is therefore dedicated to the limitations of the method at this time and the future research and improvements that can be made. ... Read more

This thesis provides insight into how the design approach, also known as ‘Design Thinking’ could be implemented in infrastructure planning processes. This is done with the objective to prevent premature convergence, which means, too early choosing for a solution by which other valuable alternatives are ‘killed off.’ By preventing premature convergence, the level of integration of infrastructure solutions will improve. The solution space could be enlarged by minimizing constraints, including more actors/stakeholders in the planning proces and providing freedom in the policy planning process. ... Read more

The possibilities public procurement offers regarding the stimulation of innovation for the benefit of economic growth and the competitiveness of markets have been increasingly receiving attention over the past two decades. In 2014 a long awaited update of the European directive governing procurement procedures was published. Among these procedures are a distinct set of innovation oriented procedures. Some of these are suitable solely for the procurement of innovations, other also for the procurement highly complex projects. Use of these procedures by governments, often called Public Procurement for Innovation, or PPfI for short, is however hindered by several problems. Due to its novelty and higher risk profile it is being applied very little, leading to a lack of jurisprudence, example projects and practice-oriented research. Compared to the widely used non-innovation oriented procedures, which have been ingrained in public organisations, its application entails a different approach and set of skills, making many civil servants hesitant to apply them. A low capacity for learning of public organisations, especially in project-based organisations, adds to this hesitation. This research aims to improve the performance of project managers and procurement advisors during the preparation phase of the innovation partnership and the competitive dialogue procedure. This is achieved by defining the processes of the preparation phase and identify how these could be optimised towards the achievement of innovation during procurement, resulting in recommendations on the relevance and set up of each process. In order to achieve this objective the following main research question was defined: How could the processes of the preparation phase be optimised for achievement of innovation during procurement, in the case of public authorities procuring for innovation in the physical domain, using the innovation partnership or competitive dialogue procedure?In order to answer this research question, a literature study was performed to clarify relevant concepts, define the preparation phase in processes and define activities for the optimisation of each of these processes. This research found the following 11 processes to be part of the preparation phase: Need & need assessor identification, Need analysis and specification, Market exploration,ConsultationMarket engagement, Partnering, Knowledge & capabilities management, Creation of support, Risk management, Project organising and Process design and conditions.Subsequently, 47 underlying activities aimed at optimising their influence on the achievement of innovation during the tender- and execution phase were derived from the literature. These processes and underlying activities formed a conceptual framework that formed the basis for case study research involving 4 projects and 7 respondents closely involved in these projects, either as procurement advisor or project manager. The case-study findings were subsequently compared to the literature study findings, after which a synthesis of the individual results took place. This resulted in the validation of the 11 processes and a discussion of optimisation of these processes using 34 of the processes found in literature and two new activities derived from the case studies. These are listed in the main text. The literature- and case study findings were used to define a list of general- and process specific recommendations for project managers and procurement advisors of public organisations planning to undertake procurement of product innovations in the physical domain using the innovation partnership or competitive dialogue procedure. The research should be considered along with its context and limitations, discussed in chapter 2, 4 and 8. The recommendations presented below and at the end of this thesis should be considered alongside the discussion of research results presented in chapter 5 as this creates additional insight into the limitations and applicability of the results.The recommendations presented below are therefore possible optimisation strategies for the preparation phase for public organisations with little experience in PPfI, planning to procure innovative solution for which they might use the innovation partnership or competitive dialogue procedure. Based on the research findings, the following general recommendation are given: First, it is recommended to define a tailored approach for each process due to the complexity of innovation oriented procurement and the unique character of projects. In this tailored approach the mutual influences and dependencies should be taken into account and exploited where possible. Secondly, for the underlying activities it is recommended to explore new possibilities and combinations, leading to fit-for-purpose activities that can be carried out for multiple processes. Thirdly, as these procedures and the achievement of innovation are complex and require broad and multidisciplinary skills, it is recommended to perform an assessment of the available internal expertise and the necessary expertise and to seek process assistance early on in the project. Fourthly, where internal knowledge and capabilities are lacking, Early Market Interaction and the help of external experts can be employed to increase the procuring organisations’ understanding of the process and its content. This can be precede any concrete plans for innovation oriented procurement, for instance by having a sit down with well-known or regular suppliers and discuss with them how they think PPfI and the accompanying collaboration can be optimized. And lastly, It is recommended to select a procedure only after sufficient information has been gathered from market parties, experts and internal sources of knowledge and expertise during the need identification, analysis and specification, market exploration and consultation. Furthermore, it is recommended to be restrictive in the application of the innovation partnership and competitive dialogue procedures as they are resource-intensive and require, as this thesis points out, thorough preparation. ... Read more

With the rapid development of real estate market, due to trends as the change in the way of working and automation/digitalisation of working processes, flexibility is one of the most important tasks for owner/investors of office buildings to invest in. Currently, 60% of the vacant offices are structural vacant. Flexibility could be used as an instrument to prevent future vacant office space. The flexibility to change characteristics of a building during its life cycle is called the adaptive capacity of a building. Adaptability can be regarded as way to make the real estate supply more dynamic and better able to cope with demand dynamics (static supply and dynamic demand) and in this way extend the functional lifespan of buildings. The problem is that real estate investors are hardly interested in investing in office buildings to increase the adaptive capacity. Thereby, is the most used financial method the DCF method which is currently insufficiently used to simulate the future uncertainty in an investment in flexibility on the longer term. This aim of this research is to illustrate how to cope with the future uncertainty in a new financial method. By using a stochastic approach with the Decision Tree Analysis the investors could be stimulated to invest in the adaptive capacity of office buildings and increase the adaptive capacity of a building to respond if the functional demand changes. ... Read more

Stimulating cross-border contracting is one of the main objectives of the European Union
according to the Green-book on modernising the EU-policy regarding tendering. They
intend to make the European market better accessible for contractors to compete in other
European countries. This would result in a reduced public expenditure by increasing the
competition on the market. However, there are also some barriers that need to be
overcome when considering cross-border contracting. Removing or reducing these barriers
will create opportunities for the construction industry.
Besides cross-border contracting, the rise of integrated contracts, and especially
those involving private investors, is an additional opportunity for the construction industry to
grow further and ensure continuity. The integral approach has to improve overall project
performance by providing freedom or solution space to the market. This freedom is also
linked to a certain responsibility the contractors have to take on, which can benefit the
project. The development to an integral approach and more freedom for the contractor is
not the same in every country or project; integrated contracts can be interpreted very
differently. ... Read more